HEBREW LETTER: Daleth, door, gate; especially the yoni as Gate of Life. Greek Delta is a triangle, with all it implies.

CARD NAME: Empress (a form of “emperor” specifically chosen to convey a feminine idea) from Latin imperatrix, imperare, “command.” The Indo-European root for “priest/priestess” has exactly the same spelling and sound as that for “emperor/empress,” though they are different words: per, which in this other form means, “to produce” or “to procure.”

ESOTERIC MEANING: The Luminous Consciousness. It is the substance of that speaking silence (or brilliant flame) that is the instructor in the Secret Foundations of Holiness and of their (stages of) preparation.

TREE of LIFE: Binah to Chokmah. (Links ‘Understanding’ and ‘Wisdom’; or Intuition with Infinite Will, Neshamah with Chiah; or ‘the Mother’ with ‘the Father,’ the stream of life flowing into the matrix-womb of its material manifestation. Creative force operating in the field of unconsciousness.)

"To advance—that means Work. Patient, exhausting, thankless, often bewildering Work. Dear sister, if you would but Work! Work blindly, foolishly, misguidedly, it doesn’t matter in the end: Work in itself has absolute virtue." -Magick Without Tears

Daleth - door - 4 - structure - yoni - vagina as the gate of life & pleasure in the utmost, pussy power

A voluptuous woman rests in an exotic locale, amazonian almost. Her garments suggest she is well off, of great wealth. She's wild & she knows it. It emanates from her. Her posture suggests she's hungry for love, hungry for sex.

She has a remarkable rapport with nature. She is in tune with everything around her. The water, the birds, the trees, the plants, EVERYTHING. Everything seems to be under her command, willfully. It's almost as if she casts a spell on everything she looks at, everything she touches and everything that surrounds her.

There is a soft, warm, balmy glow that surrounds her. The glow of a woman with child. Not her first child, but even still, she loves it if as she has never bore a child before. She relishes in the sheer uniqueness of it.

She loves you because you are her own. She carried you, she bore you, she gave you your form, she gave you life. You know she gave all for you. You became her life.

Love of a nurturing kindErotic love given to satisfy the hunger of a man who has not felt the touch of a woman for a whileLove given freelySensual lovePure pleasure

"To advance—that means Work. Patient, exhausting, thankless, often bewildering Work. Dear sister, if you would but Work! Work blindly, foolishly, misguidedly, it doesn’t matter in the end: Work in itself has absolute virtue." -Magick Without Tears

This round I've been focusing more on the paths and correspondences than the imagery of the cards, per se.

I can't help but think of the three horizontal paths as being "thresholds" of sorts. The Empresses crosses the path of the Priestess. I see the Empress as the highest, most exalted expression of pleasure and luxury. The Priestess path includes, but also transcends this element. The Empress is pregnant, while the Priestess carries the word from the instant of fertilization to the moment of birth.

I also intuitively feel that the correspondence of Chokmah to Uranus is more natural than the former convention of Chokmah/Neptune. The Empress conveys that element of Uranian independence--an Empress being a woman who rejects outside authority (she's the boss!). Connecting Binah and Chokmah, she contains a balance of masculine and feminine energies.

The High Priestess has received the impulse of The Magician, and the natural forces begin extrapolating and creating. She becomes the pregnant Empress.

In nature, the gestation happens without conscious effort, and it happened far before we as humans even knew what was going on. There's a naturally functioning intelligence to it, weaving the child together. How can one relate to that energy? ..Nature itself desiring creation and creating, even before the emergence of reason..

Nature's love. Nature's desire to give birth. The mother takes care of this part of the task, and all around it and through it is love - love for what is "becoming" within her.

And as she sanctifies her physical body, and as she "nests" and prepares a space for the child to be born, all in the strength of her willful mood of making-it-so, she appears as The Empress, making all preparations and setting things in order, fulfilling her ordination.

This was in the universe before reason emerged. This is a natural function of the universe. It is inherent to it.

Earthly material conditions have been utterly fvcked as of late, and these meditations have been an excellent discipline. My mind is reeling with bliss with each Trump, and my earthly conditions have been resolving themselves the more I devote myself to the project.

So far, for the Empress:

1.13.14 III. The Empress 9:00-9:19 A.M.

Pure conceptions of harmony, grace, and the Supernal Love which connects the Father and the Mother. Card Number, III: The Empress completes the supernal triad. Love under Will: form/grace/right conduct are necessary for the right manifestation of Love. Mercy flows from this card: the Divine Feminine, worthy of being worshipped. The colors of the card inspire a feeling of calm, cool clarity: the merciful cleansing of water. The Empress seems eminently gracious and approachable.

1.14.14 8:17-8:36 A.M.

Love. Harmony. Grace. Peace.

The colors of the card impress themselves upon me as utterly harmonious. I am enraptured as I contemplate the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven.

[Note: as has been stated my earthly conditions have been beyond hectic as of late and I strive to keep up. I will note that the more I center my life circumstances around the meditation, the more the meditation centers my life circumstances.]

I am enjoying our responses. I feel each card to be charged with Divine energy (I am much intrigued by Crowley's theory of the Tarot cards as "living beings.") My deck seems to be enjoying the attention as well. 93's

Other note: between this card and "The Priestess," I am eminently impressed by what Goethe and others have called the "Divine Feminine."

- Fertility, maternity- She accepts, receives- The Empress is very strong (although very gentle) and emanates a sense of stability- Around the lunar crescents there are circles, like bubbles; the two bubbles touch each other at the center of Empress’ figure (each crescent seem in the center of each bubble), but do not intersect/overlap – they look like female ova, that have just been fertilized, beginning their gestation- The Door, Gate =Yoni- This Path is the relation of Mother and Father, the Card describes its nature: fertile, creative; the relationship of Mother & Father = the whole World for the child! - Daleth = the perfect marriage: fecund, stable, full of love and tenderness

----------------------------------------------

- The Lotus at the center of the card (serving as a wand for the Empress) has 4 leaves – it’s the Quaternity that makes materialization possible (the basis of Pythagorean Tetractys); there’s also the “secret connection” of Netzach and Chesed, and of Venus and Jupiter: number Four geometrically perfectly represented in its dynamic as a Cross-------------- She gives me this Flower-wand, and I look at it from above, it’s Muladhara; I see Daleth as basis of all sensual experience and the root, the arch-source of all phenomena material- The Door means: a transition-point between worlds/dimensions; Doors=OPEN passages, i.e. established, existing. But Door requires a Key !

-------------------------------------------------

- This whole figure is in a an egg of light; she is the potential for giving-birth as such- Nature is in itself in balance, Equilibrium, in a way it is self-complete- The Empress is full of passion, but yet, at the same time, completely still! (Harmony, perfect Equlibrium)- She is Pleasure and Beauty- There is also inertia here; it has tremendous power------------- A great, powerful Queen stands with her hands wide spread, she is all green and her hands embrace the whole World, creating it at the same time; this is the Kingdom of Nature. The Lotus-flower on her chest pulsates, bringing my attention to it – it’s in the Hub of all phenomena, the point of Peace a midst continuous cycles of changes (the two crescents and their “bubbles” represent these cycles, the rhythmic tides of Life)- I hear music – it’s Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; all that lives, all beings of Nature, are – in their motion, growth, life and decay - as a great orchestra…. plants, animals, people, various microorganisms… their very existence creates the Symphony; we are all initiated, set in motion, by Love (not love as emotion but Love as Force & Principle of the Universe; in emotions/affections we call love we see and experience only one type of reflection of this Love)- In this Harmony, time is in conjunction with the timeless; Nature’s true essence is not represented with the Cross, but with Circle (its perfect geometric form is the Circle); but it’s not just the Circle, it’s Circle AND Cross….when we travel “up” toward the Mystery of this Arcana, we perceive it as is graphically shown in the glyph for Venus; when we are “in” it, we perceive it as Rose-Croix

"Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none."

Empress IIIVery fluid, calming, all encompassing. Her upper body is red. Blood filled, with spirals of energy. She looks patiently to her left, at a rising waxing moon. which is mixed in with wavy, water plants. 2 moons are balanced, orbs of energy surround them. Her lower body protected by a shield with white birds. Her crown is like two golden moons, with an orb nestled between at her crown chakra. Her left arm seems to support something, or waiting to. Her right holds tightly to a lotus. Her upper body surrounded by light. A pelican in a nest feeds it's young. She wants to give the lotus to what comes. A child? As the moons circle her, she is at home, holding everything secure in her fluid environment. The light could be the sun seen through the water. Nourishing the nourisher.

Her scepter is a flower (Yoni) – which might indicate her mode of ruling is gentle and nurturing

The 2 circles on the Empress' left and right catch my attention and arise a variety of associations for me:1. they look lunar - remind me of waning and waxing moons – indicates feminine receptive presence2. they resemble pearls (as does the circular form on her crown) - pearl comes from a seashell which is another symbol for a Yoni - all this again alludes to feminine sexual polarity3. The two "pearls" are in the center of the transparent sphere/circle – in this way they remind me of breasts – femininity, motherhood, nurturing, sexuality4. The translucent sphere around the "pearl" also reminds of a zygote in the womb

Her shirt seems to be having a pattern of bees and flowers – a metaphor for sexual intercourse

The shield at her feet – shield is usually carried by knights so this might indicate she has a male counterpart; the love birds on the shield might indicate he is her Lover. Another meaning possibly – she is shielded and protected by the quality of love

There are lot of circles and circular shapes in the card – circle is union; but also may symbolize womb, and/or female sex organ

The flower on the bottom definitely seems to be spilling something from its midst – juice or nectar – Amrita

Fleur-de-lis - Royal French lily on the ground – flower associated with Virgin Mary

Flower petals on the ground – alluding the flower has been plucked – metaphorically speaking – a sign that sexual union has taken place (she has been "deflowered")

The card shows female presence but it indirectly indicates a presence of a male (mother swan with babies – there must be a male swan; Empress with shield at her feet – there must be a knight) – perhaps this involves state of longing in reflection on the loved one – dreamy quality of the card might further indicate this. If she has been impregnated it could also be a state of joyful anticipation of the new arrival - as lower part of her body seems rounded and voluptuous she indeed may be pregnant.

I find it interesting that the Empress is expressionless – her mouth not showing makes her state indeterminable to us

Her left hand is cupped and receptive (and corresponds to her lunar receptive side) and it's in the posture that I find to be interesting – as if she’s holding an infant

What I find odd is her skirt – it almost looks like a fish-tail, making her mermaid-like - looking at the card it almost makes me feel like it’s taking place under water - taking this into consideration I may interpret it as the entire image is within the womb (which is watery and moist) of the Goddess - Mother Nature, symbolically representing the ripening, growing and coming to fruition

Many things come in twos – the two little birds on either side on top of the card; two “pearls”; birds on the shield

She is within a sphere within which everything is sweet and organic and sort of cozy looking and rounded; outside of her sphere on top there are some straight-edged lines which stand in contrast with gentle organic forms within the sphere. Her presence defines the sphere of her influence making environment and all in it more friendly and nourishing.Looking at the colors and shapes alone I get the sense of loving, sweet, tender sensations and feelings All the bubbles indicate protection and healing – like the child is protected in the womb – the sphere of nourishment, warmth and safety

"As long as space endures, as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world." - Arya Shantideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra

Would anyone happen to know if there is an etymological connection between the words "Venus" and "vein"? The question poped into my head during my biology class today...Qabalistically, it seems to make since to me right now if you consider ״דמ״ (blood) and Dalet meaning "door" then purhaps dalet is the door/ vein for the mayim/מ/blood? But etymologically, anyone know?